Hearing devices are often very small so that they can be worn at the pinna or in the ear canal. As a consequence a single miniature cell such as for example a zinc-air battery or rechargeable NiMH battery is employed to power these devices. Such tiny batteries only have a rather limited capacity, e.g. a size 13 battery with a diameter of 7.9 mm and a height of 5.4 mm has a typical capacity of 310 mAh. Therefore, they usually need to be replaced quite often, for instance every few days in the case of a hearing aid being used many hours per day by a hearing impaired person. The handling of such tiny batteries when trying to replace a depleted battery of a small hearing device with a full one is especially challenging and time consuming for elderly people who have lost their manual dexterity and possess reduced vision, as commonly occurs with ageing. Furthermore, individuals of the older age group prefer simple things that are easy to use. Due to the frequent requirement for battery replacement this task practically cannot be assumed by a more capable person (e.g. a caregiver or a hearing aid dispenser) but needs to be accomplishable by the user of the device him-/herself.
A number of solutions exist that attempt to make the process of exchanging the battery of a hearing device a less tedious task.
An apparatus that eases the process of inserting such batteries into small electrical devices is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,890. The apparatus includes a plurality of handles, where a small battery is removably attached to the end of each handle, allowing the use of the handle for assisting with the insertion of the battery into a small battery well.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,039,185 also discloses a hearing aid battery inserter. Using this inserter a single battery may be conveniently inserted into a hearing aid while still attached to the inserter. By gripping the inserter between the thumb and forefinger, a single battery may readily be positioned adjacent the battery compartment of a hearing aid, inserted within the battery compartment, and then separated from the inserter by a sliding or wiping motion.
In US-A-2005/0179274 a pair of tweezers adapted for inserting hearing aid batteries is presented.
Furthermore, WO-A-93/07988 elaborates on a pen-like battery handling apparatus with a magnetic pickup.
Similarly, US-A-2009/0020549 proposes a pen-shaped battery dispenser and a cartridge for dispensing batteries to a hearing aid, wherein an ejector member ejects a battery from the battery dispenser following activation of a release member.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,977 a device which dispenses and provides insertion and removal capability for individually installing and deinstalling batteries for in-the-ear or in-the-canal type hearing aids is described. A multi-battery dispensing container is proposed that is reusable and stores the removed batteries within the container for recycling or proper disposal. The device comprises a series of chambers, where each chamber is configured to perform either the function of removing a battery from a host electronic device or the function of installing a new battery into a host electronic device.
Additionally, further refinements of the device presented in U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,977 are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,565.